Pat Buchanan: US Should Not Take Military Action in Iraq

The United States should "wait until the dust settles" before taking any military action in Iraq, political commentator Pat Buchanan said Monday on Newsmax TV’s "America’s Forum."

A former adviser to Presidents Nixon, Ford, and Reagan, Buchanan reminded viewers that he opposed American intervention in Iraq in 2003 and opposes it now. If Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his 900,000-man army can’t defend their capital from ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) insurgents, according to Buchanan, then the United States "ought not to go in and do it for them."

A pressing question, he said, is "who has been feeding the ISIS tiger," a group Buchanan characterized as "a malevolent beast."

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"The answer is basically many of the Gulf Arabs have been sending money to ISIS in Syria," he said. "The Turks have been letting ISIS and others infiltrate into Syria because they detest [Syrian President] Bashar al-Assad. Bashar al-Assad is himself a Shia ... The people who are standing up for Maliki, like the Iranians, are the same who are standing up for al-Assad."

Buchanan said he would not object to the prospect of the United States negotiating with Iran, comparing it to "working with Joe Stalin in World War II when you're fighting Hitler." However, the United States needs to recognize that if the Iranians defend Baghdad, they are not likely to leave the country anytime soon.

The end result, he said, would likely be a three-state Iraq, composed of Kurds, Sunnis, and Shias.

Buchanan briefly weighed in on immigration reform, an initiative he said died with House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s campaign.

"The voters of the 7th district of Virginia have just run a stake through amnesty and the DREAM Act, certainly for 2014 and very probably for 2015 and 2016," he predicted, explaining that if House Speaker John Boehner tries to pursue some form of the DREAM Act, or any form of amnesty, it will "blow up the caucus."

"Why would the Republicans start a war in their own caucus when they look like they're headed for a victory this November?"